Vous êtes ici

Panier

Langues

Connexion utilisateur

Hyphenated words

dim, 06/16/2013 - 11:12

I am translating an essay by Lazki-Bertoldi. He has a certain lyrical style, contingent on hyphenated words, which I'm trying to retain, if possible. Can anyone suggest English translations for the following words:

How interesting! Some interesting results for the German analogue Weltwort at http://www.linguee.com/english-german/search?source=auto&query=Weltwort. I have the impression that veltvort here is a bit like veltanshoyung, at least in being structured the way German compounds are structured. "World-word" might mean, then, "word of worldwide significance," not parochial or local, of importance not just within Yiddish but also outside it. The passage would suggest that this particular universal word is a consequence of a particular set of experiences. That at all helpful?

Certainly, the context makes it clear that my initial guess of "proverb" was wrong.
From the context I'm getting the impression of "well-known concept"; perhaps "word of worldwide significance" as Larry says.
But I find the German citations puzzling.

Thanks, LRosenwald and Khayem, for your helpful responses. Khayem, I'm thinking your initial hunch about velt-vort meaning "proverb" may not be entirely off. It seems to me the meaning may be a combination of "proverb" and "word of significance," so that in context this would be a loaded word with significant emotive meaning when uttered by Jews. In other words, the sentence is asking: This Yiddish well-known, evocative word, *golus* -- what is it if not a creature (or creation) of our migrations? What do you guys think? Does this make sense?